Fairmount-Southside Historic District

Ask what the district contains and the surveys give counts. The National Register survey found 1,016 contributing buildings, one contributing structure and 425 buildings that do not contribute, with most houses dating from 1905 to 1920. Wood-frame bungalows are the commonest type, while the largest and most varied homes sit in the eastern sections. The Register listing came on April 5, 1990, with a boundary increase on May 12, 1999. The Fairmount Neighborhood Association's preservation committee worked with city staff on design guidelines for the local historic district.

What the plaque says

Fairmount-Southside Historic District The Fairmount-Southside Historic District is a predominately residential area in the center of Fort Worth's Historic Southside. Located approximately two miles south of present-day downtown, the district is comprised of 22 separate additions containing more than 1,200 contributing residences, commercial buildings and other structures. It emcompasses nearly 375 acres in about 100 square blocks. Most residences were built as wood-framed single-family cottages, bungalows and two-story foursquare homes. Fort Worth was incorporated in 1873 in anticipation of the first railroad, which came through in 1876. Speculators bought and sold land they believed would turn the most profit if Fort Worth's economy was bolstered by the railroad. During the post-railroad boom, the city began to quickly expand south. Developers planned the additions that now comprise the Fairmount-Southside Historic District during the years 1883-1907. The largest was the Fairmount Addition, platted in 1890, which encompasses much of the western half of the district. When developed, the land on which the Fairmount-Southside Historic District now rests was on the southernmost edge of the city. The district grew rapidly in its formative years, as many middle-income workers moved to Fort Worth for various employment opportunities. Within the first two decades of the 20th Century, streetcar lines ran down major district thoroughfares, including College and Fairmount Avenues, carrying railroad employees, doctors, lawyers, salesmen and merchants to and from their homes built on the Southside to their areas of employment. Beginning with Queen Anne and ending in the Craftsman style, the homes built by the original residents now showcase the evolution of domestic architecture of early 20th Century suburban America (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.1 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 2.2 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.2 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 4.4 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• Hemphill Presbyterian Church — 0.4 mi
• Elizabeth Boulevard — 0.7 mi
• Woman's Club of Fort Worth — 0.9 mi
• Baker Funeral Home — 1.0 mi